Calcium Reactor Goes nuts??

[DarthSimon]

Hey guys,
Been dialing in my Calcium Reactor for a week now.
Everything has been going great. I lowered my range slightly over night because my Alk was dripping a little bit. My range of co2 on my apex was 7.25 to 7.20.
I changed it to 7.2 to 7.15

I woke up this morning to my tanks ph being 7.4 and my co2 tank being less then half full. Was pretty much full overnight. I noticed my co2 Scrubber media was exhausted within 2 days. Usually I change that once a week. My co2 tank is iced cold and sweating water....
any help????

I took the doser and calcium reactor offline.
And filled the co2 Scrubber with fresh media to raise my ph......

 

[TheEngineer]

Do you have a bubble counter on the reactor? Were you seeing extra bubbles?

The sweating tank means it was releasing a lot of CO2. They get cold when the pressure drops "quickly". You might just have a leak in a connection somewhere and the increased local CO2 is what drove your pH down.

 

[DarthSimon]

Didn’t notice any extra bubbles but I can tell you the tank had 850-900 psi over night and I have 400 right now.

Is it safe to unscrew the regulator?? Yes I have the carbon doser. I also hand tightened the nut.

 

[TheEngineer]

Turn off the tank first, but yes you should be able to remove the regulator.

Sounds like you have a leak, IMO. What is the farthest point along the connections that it is sweating? It looks like it is at the point where it connects to the regulator. That is where your leak is most likely.

 

[DarthSimon]

Looks more so at the top but there was some moisture on the floor. I disconnected the carbon doser. I am pretty sure it wasn’t on tight enough. I was able to pretty easily unscrew it. I did hand tighten the nut when I set this up last week. Is it possible the nut backed out?? Also would the leak just go into open air meaning my basement is filled with co2? Or somehow the co2 went through carbon doser while it was open???

 

[Diesel]

Test with a soft soap solution in a spray bottle.
Soap and water, mix and spray it on the connection.

You also mention that your set point on the Ph probe is set in the reactor at a little over 7.
Not sure what kind of media you using but most melting point of media is around a Ph 6.5

 

[TheEngineer]

I meant on the entire setup, not the bottle. Odds are it is at the connection point. Yes, there is excess CO2, but a 20lb bottle isn't enough to make the room toxic. Just open a window.

@Diesel's suggestion for how to spot the leak is your best bet when you reassemble.

 

[DarthSimon]

I’m using reborn.

 

[DarthSimon]

So I think I’m going to go and have this thing refilled today. Good practice is always to close but with channel locks and tighten well?? No hand tightening?

 

[TheEngineer]

I don't know about CO2 bottles specifically, but I'm a certified diver. There's never a need to tighten more than hand tight. Over tightening can lead to all sorts of problems. I'm assuming there is an o-ring on this connection, right? Is it cracked?

 

[Diesel]

Reborn needs to run at 6.5 in order to release calcium back into the water.

Watch out with tightening with a tool as you can damage your O-ring.

 

[TexasTodd]

Are you measuring in reactor or effluent for PH or just your system water?

 

[DarthSimon]

So Ive been taking the calcium reactor super slow on advice of a few fellow reefers. When I notice alk drop, I drop the increments down, the range .05
Reactor has been online for a week. This was a scary incident. So the bottle seems to be warming up and ph is slowly climbing back to normal levels. at 7.68. Low this am was 7.35. Could any damage have been done to my SPS at these low levels??

 

[DarthSimon]

Ph probe is in the reactor. Also the Ph drop overnight was my tank water, not the reactor.

 

[TexasTodd]

What PH are you running inside the reactor? More curious since you only listed tank ph.
Agree with above on leak. Was the reactor probe in the 7.15-7.2 and tank at 7.4? If so, man, I've never had a tank get that low but I guess if a bunch of CO2 leaked into the room and was making it through your skimmer it could really saturate it. What does your tank normally run before the reactor? Last time you calibrated probes?


If you've already tightened the tank valve, you might ask the place you take it to fill if it was possibly damaged.

 

[DarthSimon]

My normal ph with scrubber media on is 8.0 to 8.2 without scrubber media 7.8 to 8.0.

This morning I woke up to An Apex ph alarm and went right downstairs to basement to where all my gear is.

Yes the reactor ph was about 7.17 and tank ph was 7.4ish

Also I just changed my Co2 scrubber media maybe 2 days ago. The media was purple this morning when I changed it out. Usually change the media 2-3 times a month. This was 2 days. I opened my Bilco doors in my basement to clear out the excess co2 down there. Ph is now 7.72. It’s rising slowly but steady....

My probe is calibrated. Just calibrated when I installed the Calcium Rx....


So the soapy solution, what should I do? Spray the connection area and but that attaches from regulator and tank?? What should I look for?? Bubbles shooting out??


Guys thank you very much for the help....

 

[DarthSimon]

I don't know about CO2 bottles specifically, but I'm a certified diver. There's never a need to tighten more than hand tight. Over tightening can lead to all sorts of problems. I'm assuming there is an o-ring on this connection, right? Is it cracked?

So I was watching the BRS video on setup of this Vertex CaRx and when Ryan attaches the nut to the Co2 tank, he takes a wrench to it, and tightens it about a 1/4 turn past hand tightening. I never did that. I just had tightened.... I Agree and thought that would be enough... Why would the nut back out like that though?? Tank pressure maybe?

 

[TheEngineer]

So I was watching the BRS video on setup of this Vertex CaRx and when Ryan attaches the nut to the Co2 tank, he takes a wrench to it, and tightens it about a 1/4 turn past hand tightening. I never did that. I just had tightened.... I Agree and thought that would be enough... Why would the nut back out like that though?? Tank pressure maybe?

In theory, the pressure should be holding it tight. If air was leaking out around the oring it could have slowly loosened it.

When you reattach everything, spray the soapy water on ever connection. If there's a leak there you will see bubbles form.

 

[DarthSimon]

Will do!!! And thank you all...

 

[chuckfu5]

Reborn needs to run at 6.5 in order to release calcium back into the water.

Watch out with tightening with a tool as you can damage your O-ring.

Not true